Page 37: of Marine News Magazine (June 2006)

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Expanding the Niche

The action was congregating around the

Kills, with the containerports off one spur and the refineries off another. The Tilly tied-up at First Marine, then for awhile on the old Morris Canal, and at Poling's old yard before McAllister took over. The fleet moved into the Penn yard in 2001, which has served as home-base ever since.

A single-screw tug like the Tilly was still legal for oil barges in 1991, but in the wake of OPA 90 would come a lot of new rules about moving petroleum. Besides, the calls were increasing and "we didn't have the boats.1993 was a big year. We bought the Francis, an ex-Bronx Towing tug and our first twin-screw tug. That dou- bled our horsepower. We'd go in with oil barges, and come out with sand barges.

We kept very busy." Weeks became a reg- ular, with cranes and dredges to move.

Business grew brisker. "We bought the Brandon on spec in 1994," and a lot of work for K-Sea ensued. "The Brandon's a very versatile boat," said Capt. Roehrig, of his biggest boat till then, an 89-footer, "she has the draft to get into the creeks, but after four years, we repowered her - 3,000 hp, and she could take a 70,000-BBL barge right down the coast."

Amboy Aggregate became a regular, a situation that led in 1998 to the purchase of the Vivian. The third of the Roehrig twin-screw boats came from the same yard as the first two, Equitable in Madis- onville, Louisiana, and share a family resemblance, despite differences in length. "They were the DPCs of their day," says

Capt. Roehrig. "There were something like 385 of them built. Even with differ- ences in length you'd call them sisters, with the deckhouses and most of their

June, 2006 • MarineNews 37

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